ceokhan

NDP

Tiger

Senator Boomdog

Senator Boomdog

When my friend called AOL to cancel, he simply said "The internet is a tool of satan" to almost every thing the rep said, and that got him through quite fast :D

Quine

I kept calling asking why I was still being billed. I finally got someone who told me I had a second active account and that the other CSRs would have seen that on their screens when I was canceling the first one. I did get three of the five months refunded, but there is no way in hell I'd ever do business with this company again. A Harvard Business Review case study in unethical behavior.

Jimbo

Yes, but it's not ethical for businesses to attempt to retain customers with the use of subterfuge and intimidation.

Try to convince me to stay all you want, make me any offer you want, but when I give you the final word that I definitely do want to cancel my account, by God, you had better quit badgering me and immediately terminate my subscription.

mashuren

"I read your page dissing the AOL retention techniques.

I seem to be missing your point. It seems to be a good idea to try to keep existing customers. It's a goal of every business in the world."

Ben Popken

Altima NEO

this whole thing is very indicadive of how peoples' minds can be so easily controlled by companies. think of how many poor souls actually buy into the whole customer retention bullshit and continue living with aol not even realizing what they're missing out on.

nbenko

The next year I called back one day before my free period came due. I called as my mom once again, telling them my husband was out of work. 9 more free months. This process continued until 2004 when I went away to college and didn't need my AOL e-mail address anymore.

Lessons learned. . .

-Customer Service Reps obviously don't read the previous account notation.
-If you're having a bad day, and you're still and AOL member, feel free to give the CS reps a call, they're always waiting to have someone to talk to.
-If you're still an AOL member, shame on you. If you're still an AOL member PAYING for the service, you shouldn't even be looking at this website.

mcnasby

Derek, IN

It amazes me how many people are willing to put up with horrible customer service, ridiculous prices, invasive software and shady cancellation procedures just because the software is what they're used to, and they're not intelligent enough to realize that for every thing AOL includes as a "feature" in its bloatware, there's a free utility out there that does the same thing.

There's absolutely no reason to give any of your money to these corporate monsters.

mashuren

YourTechSupport

Ben Popken

Nick Douglas

No wonder our stock options went from $88 a share to $8.

dirty_snowflake

Omen

BenP

thwarted

Remember how AOL became widely reviled as a place where member passwords were often given up? Much of that truly did come from phishing but many also came from social engineering. A famous way people used to try to get access to another person's account would be to call a CSR and pretend that they were part AOL's internal IS dept. and were running a test of the Merlin system. From there the CSR would be instructed to look up a particular member's ID and divulge information.

I don't have much personal information but I was always lead to believe that Merlin was the core of the AOL Customer Service software, not just for retention.

something_amazing

When I worked in textbook publishing, I had the chance to go through a sales training crash course. Somewhat to my relief, I found that my company had internalized the mistakes of AOL-type practices. Our sales training included things like "Don't ever try to sell an instructor a book if it's not right for her...she'll have a bad experience and never use our books again."

But, unfortunately, that kind of advice is quickly discarded when your pay is sales-goal based. Customer service companies should have a ten-second post-call recording that invites you to rate your experience with that CSR from 1 to 5. If a CSR averages above 4.5, he gets a bonus. Maybe?

Ted's Famous Kickin Chicken

ACurmudgeon

If you break this statement down to general terms, almost every industry is guilty of this.

Think: the RIAA, the auto industry, opponents of Net Neutrality, etc.

Paul D

Reading corporate manuals fires me up, if I were a boxer I would read them before every fight. I'd then proceed to pummel to poor sap I was fighting, spouting corporate buzzwords and acronyms with every punch I throw.

Hooray4Zoidberg

I wish I could say that this material surprises me. It makes perfect sense, though, when you take into account the degree to which AOL sucks.

Danilo Campos

Lee...

Shit...

Vinny

bambino